Texas AG: 'In God We Trust' Allowed On Patrol Cars

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that police patrol vehicles can display the message “In God We Trust” without being in violation of the First Amendment.

Paxton made the ruling in a letter to state Rep. Charles Perry. who the letter says asked for the analysis after the Childress Police Department “has come under attack” for putting the motto on its vehicles.

The department got a letter from the Freedom of Religion Foundation, asking the department to remove the motto. Childress Police chief Adrian Garcia wrote a short note back denying the request and asking the foundation to “go fly a kite.”

Paxton compared putting the motto on patrol cars to saying a prayer before a town meeting, the constitutionality of which has been upheld by The Supreme Court.

“Displaying ’In God We Trust’ on police vehicles is a passive use of a motto steeped in our nation’s history that does not coerce Citizen approval or participation,” Paxton wrote.

“The Supreme Court recently upheld the right of a municipality to open its town meetings with prayer, and in doing so, Justice Kennedy explained that ’legislative bodies do not engage in impermissible coercion merely by exposing constituents to prayer that they would rather not hear and in which they need not participate.’”

Paxton’s letter concludes: “A court is likely to conclude that a law enforcement department’s display of the national motto, ’In God We Trust,’ on its patrol vehicles is permissible under the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution.”

• Read Paxton’s full letter and justification here.

Image via Childress Police Department Facebook